


In Between Time

by in_the_bottle



Series: Can't Go Back [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Genderfluid Loki, Lady Loki, M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-31
Updated: 2014-12-31
Packaged: 2018-03-04 12:27:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3067814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/in_the_bottle/pseuds/in_the_bottle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a couple of missing scenes from Road For Home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Between Time

**Author's Note:**

> I had to cut these due to pacing issues, and many thanks to Lefaym for her speedy beta! Oh, and Happy New Year everyone! :D

** Past **

Tony was on guard the moment he stepped into the house and heard voices of children coming from the direction of the kitchen. He proceeded slowly, wary that it might be another of Loki's pranks, only relaxing when Maria poked her head out of the kitchen door to wave at him.

Tony smiled and waved back at Maria. Loki, in the guise of Lucile, stepped out of the kitchen and gave Tony a quick welcome home kiss.

"Company?" Tony asked.

"You're back early," Loki said.

"Al didn't really need my help this afternoon, and I found some stuff in one of his shelves at the back that I could really use. Figured I'd come home and get a head start." Tony explained.

"Put your things away, get changed, and come to the kitchen. There're a couple of young men I'd like you to meet."

Tony raised his eyebrows in surprise. Other than Maria and Owen, they had never had any other guests over. "Should I be jealous?"

"They're children!" Loki chastised, looking suitably offended at the implication of Tony's question. She gave Tony's shoulder a slight slap.

"Children? _Now_ I'm curious," Tony said, giving Loki another quick kiss before he darted upstairs and stowed the box of various electronic parts away.

Tony took a few minutes to change out of his grease-stained top and wash his hands and face before heading back downstairs. Loki and Maria were seated at the dining table with two boys, who each had a cup of what smelled like hot chocolate.

"Hey Maria," Tony greeted their neighbour with a friendly peck on her cheek.

"Haven't seen you in a while, Ed," Maria said, returning the greeting.

"You know, busy with work and all that," Tony replied, deliberately vague with the details. He turned his attention to the two boys. The blond one stood up and stuck his hand out to Tony. The little guy looked like he was about 12 or 13, skinny to the point that he appeared almost sickly.

"Hello Mr Smith, I'm Steven. Steven Rogers," he introduced himself, and Tony almost bit his own tongue in surprise even as he shook the kid's hand.

"Hi," Tony managed to choke out. The kid, freakin Steve 'Captain America' Rogers, didn't seem to notice anything wrong, and he poked his dark haired friend with his elbow.

"This is my friend James Barnes," Steve continues. 

And Tony almost had a heart attack when the other kid, looked up from his mug of hot chocolate and waved cheerfully at Tony. "Hi! Everyone calls me Bucky."

Loki must have noticed Tony's reaction because next thing he knew, she was steering him over to the kitchen counter with the excuse of helping her make more tea and coffee.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Loki whispered.

"More like two ghosts," Tony replied with a nervous laugh. "How…?" Tony wasn't even quite sure what he was asking, still too rattled by seeing the child that will one day grow up to be Captain America – the man responsible of taking Tony's father away from him for much of his own childhood – and the future Sargent Bucky Barnes. 

"They literally ran into Maria and me at the market earlier today," Loki said, putting a refilled kettle back on the stove top. "Running from some bullies or something. Knocked Maria off her feet and her groceries everywhere. Steve felt so guilty about the whole thing that they helped us bring our shopping back home to apologise."

"I see."

"Anthony?" Loki whispered.

"I'll tell you about it later," Tony promised. "You didn't have to do that," he added when he saw Loki cleaning out her own mug to make coffee for him. They still only had four mugs in the house, and Loki probably had enough etiquette shoved down her throat from a young age that she would never ask one of their guests to give up their mug. Though Tony had to wonder where the heck did Loki learn how to play hostess since he was sure the royal were usually the ones who were being entertained, not the other way around. On the other hand, he was from Asgard, maybe they did things differently there.

"I want to," Loki replied with a small smile, and Tony couldn't help but lean forward to kiss her. Loki's hands automatically moved to hold onto Tony at his waist. They have been together just a little over three months and Tony still couldn't get enough of Loki. This was something Tony hadn't really thought possible given his tendency to lose interest in someone after he'd slept with them.

"Hey lovebirds, there are children around here!" Maria called out to them, her tone one of fond indulgence.

Reluctantly, Tony pulled away from Loki, and turned around to find the boys giggling into their mugs with Maria grinning at them. Loki gently pushed Tony away, her cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

"Go entertain Maria before she says something else unfortunate," Loki said, turning around to take the kettle off the stove.

"Fine," Tony replied with a put upon sigh and headed back to the dining area. "So boys, Lucile said you guys ran into Maria?"

"It wasn't our fault – " Bucky started.

"We're sorry!" Steve said. 

"Whoa!" Tony held up his hands to stop the inevitable flow of words. "Not blaming anyone, just making conversation."

"The boys were really helpful in helping Maria back up and getting our shopping home for us," Loki added as she returned with Tony's mug of coffee, giving the boys a rather fond look.

"Who were you running from?" Tony asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

The boys looked at each other, clearly debating whether or not to tell the adults what happened.

"Come on. I promise not to tell your parents and you won't get into trouble."

"Promise?" Bucky asked.

"Cross my heart," Tony swore.

More looked were exchanged and James finally spoke up after exchanging more looks with Steve. "They were picking on Robbie."

"And we couldn't let them get away with it, Robbie's just a little kid." Steve added.

"So Steve yelled at them and threw some stuff at them until they let Robbie go, only they decided to come after us instead."

"So we ran, and we really weren't looking at where we were going and ran into Mrs Smith and Mrs O'Donelly instead. Sorry about that." Steve finished. 

"You boys have apologised enough already," Maria said.

"And I think helping us carry our shopping back home is enough of a penance, don't you think so, Edward?" Loki asked.

"Definitely," Tony nodded in agreement. "Here's a tip for next time: Plan an exit strategy before you charge into a situation," Tony said with a wink.

"I'll remember that!" Bucky said with a cheerful smile and Steve merely nodded.

That night, after Tony had told Loki about Howard, Captain America and his best friend Sargent James "Bucky" Barnes, Loki told him about his daughter Hela.

"You like children then?" Tony asked after Loki had finished his tale. The fondness in Loki's tone and expression as he spoke of Hela was unmistakable. 

"I'm the God of Mischief and Chaos, Tony. Children are the embodiment of mischief and chaos tends to follow whenever there's a child present. How could I not like them?" Loki replied. 

"Huh. I guess that makes sense," Tony mumbled sleepily. He vaguely thought of asking Loki whether he wanted more kids of his own, but he drifted off into sleep before he could voice the question.

 

** Present **

Loki felt completely disorientated when he woke up. The sky was dark outside, and even from the bed, he could see the various buildings of Manhattan lit up at night. 

He fumbled a little trying to find the switch for the bedside lamp and found a note on the table in Anthony's illegible handwriting.

_L,_

_In the lab. Bathroom to your left, closet to your right._

_Let Jarvis know if you need anything._

_Make yourself at home._

_Love,  
T_

"Jarvis?" Loki called out tentatively. 

"Yes, Mr Loki?" a cultured voice answered. 

"What time is it?"

"It's currently 9:43pm. You have been asleep for approximately fifteen hours." Jarvis replied. 

"Thank you." 

"You're most welcome. Sir has instructed me to let you know that you have Level 1 access to my systems."

"What does that mean?" Loki asked as he got out of bed. 

"It means you have full access to all my systems except system administration and any override commands from Sir."

"I see," Loki replied. 

He made his way to the bathroom which was probably as big as their bedroom in the house they shared in the 30s. There was a large jacuzzi bathtub in front of the floor to ceiling glass window and one side of the wall was taken up by a walk-in shower bigger than most people's walk-in closet. The whole place was decorated with light coloured marbles that wouldn't have looked out of place in the palace of Asgard. 

A quick shower managed to disperse the sleep fog in his brain. When Loki stepped out of the bathroom dressed in one of the bathrobes he found hanging behind the door, Anthony was coming out of the walk in closet with some clothes. 

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Anthony asked. 

"Starving," Loki replied. 

"Figured. I have some takeaway in the kitchen downstairs." Tony dumped the clothes onto the bed. "None of these actually fits you properly, but I figured you could alter them if you want." 

There was a pair of new boxer shorts that still had a tag attached, jeans, and a white casual button down top. Altering the size to fit, Loki put them on without comment.

"Pepper's downstairs," Anthony said. He moved closer and rested his hands on Loki's waist. "Figured we should discuss how you want to handle your whole earth bound identity issue before you head back to Asgard." 

"I've already met a few people here and in London who knows me as Lucas Frigerson."

"We can stick with that then, and whatever story you've made up so far should work as well. Let's see what Pepper has to say?"

"If you think that's best," Loki replied. He pulled Anthony closer for a quick kiss that turned just a little steamy before Anthony pulled away reluctantly. 

"Rain check. You need to eat, and we need to talk to Pepper." 

Loki nodded and followed Anthony out of the room. His stomach grumbled at the smell of food when they made their way down the steps. 

"You must be Loki. I'm Virginia Potts. Tony's been telling me quite a bit about your trip to the past." Loki's first impression of Potts was that of a confident woman who was very protective of Anthony. The way she smiled politely at Loki while at the same time carefully assessing him was not something Loki could find fault with, not when she had Anthony's best interests at heart.

"Dare I ask how Virginia turned into Pepper?"

"She had freckles when I met her," Anthony replied with a grin. "Freckles, red hair, Pepper!" 

"Right," Loki said. Anthony's explanation had made no sense whatsoever. 

"Ignore him," Potts said. "You can call me Pepper if you want. God knows everyone does at this point." Potts rolled her eyes in exasperation before continuing. "Tony told me about what happened, and what he thinks you had in mind going forward. Now, I want to hear it from your point of view, because if we get even a single detail wrong, the press would find out. And I'm also assuming you'd rather not have SHIELD knocking at your door?" 

In between finishing all the takeaway Anthony had ordered, Loki told Pepper about the cover identity he had been using. It felt a little rude to be eating while doing so, but Loki was too hungry to care by that point and Pepper didn't seemed to mind. 

"We'll use the time you'll be away to integrate your identity, setting up a small social media presence and things like that," Anthony said. "Leave that to me and Jarvis." 

Loki looked at Anthony, skeptical. While Anthony was undeniably an engineering and computing genius, Loki knew him well enough by this point to realise that Anthony tended to lean towards the dramatic side of things, which was the last thing they need in the current situation. 

"Javis and _I_ will be taking care of that," Pepper said. "I'm not sure you even know the definition of subtle."

In the end, as far as any Midgardian government computer database was concerned, Lucas Frigerson was a citizen or Norway who had moved to the United Kingdom for his studies at Oxford University, and remained there until recently. He was in America on an a Research Scholar visa and was an expert in Nordic mythology and the occult. According to Anthony, it was easier to break into the Nordic government database to get him the required birth certificate and passport than their British counterpart. 

"How long will you be gone?" Anthony asked after Pepper had left. Loki was seated on the couch in the living area while Anthony was lying across it with his head in Loki's lap. 

"It depends."

Anthony nodded. "Jarvis, you still hooked into SHIELD's database?"

"Of course, sir." 

"Get me the status of Thor Odinson." 

Within seconds, a holographic display of the available information appeared before them, not unlike some of the control interface used on Asgard. 

"Summary?" Anthony requested. 

"Thor Odinson currently still remains in Puente Antiguo with Doctor Jane Foster. SHIELD is maintaining its temporary base in the town and is monitoring Doctor Foster's research and the artefact that fell to Earth, code named Mjølnir."

"Wait," Loki said. "Thor is _still_ on Earth?"

"Yes." 

"Something wrong, darling?"

Loki shook his head. "I don't know. Thor was going to be crowned a few months before I left because Odin was due to fall into Odin-sleep. If Thor is still on Earth, I'm not sure what is happening in Asgard." 

"This means you have to go soon?"

Loki could hear the reluctance in Anthony's voice. 

"Not right now. Tomorrow night perhaps. I need to tie up some loose ends with Casey and her sister in the morning." 

"How long do you think you'll be gone for?"

"I don't know, but it shouldn't be more than three months, I hope." 

"Then I guess we should make good use of our last night together before you leave," Anthony said, as he reached up and pulled Loki down towards him for a kiss. "I'm cashing in that rain check from earlier." 

 

The End


End file.
